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Perry Corporation, the hedge fund run by veteran investor Richard Perry, has reduced its exposure to financial stocks, bucking a trend by some of its largest peers that had revealed they had built large stakes in the sector.

The fund, which was established by Perry in 1993 and held about $6.2bn (€4.3bn) at the end of last year, according to investors, decreased its holdings in financial stocks by 10% in the second quarter.

This finding, from analysis of the firm's regulatory filings by data provider Bloomberg, continued an existing culling of holdings in the sector in the first quarter of this year by the $1.4 trillion hedge fund industry.

However the decision by the New York-based fund to trim its exposure to financials last quarter puts it at odds with views held about them at large US rivals Atticus and Paulson & Co.

Each built positions in, or added to existing positions in, US banks JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America last quarter, whose shares had suffered from a crisis of confidence among investors towards the sector during the credit crunch.

Paulson's buying up of bank shares last quarter was a volte face on his standing last year and early this year, when he heavily short sold UK banks, making £393m (€455.4m) of paper profits in the six months to the middle of January, while speculators were banned from increasing any short positions they held in the beleaguered sector.

A manager of one equities hedge fund based in London said it was not clear whether European banks had revealed the full extent of their losses they made on mortgage-related, and other, instruments on their balance sheet. For this reason, he added, it was difficult to form watertight views assuming that there were no more surprises in store.

One London investment consultant said: "Hedge funds are going in very different directions at the moment as there is still so much dislocation in markets. The returns this produces at individual groups means an average thrown out by an index is not so meaningful."